Thorgeir Ljosvetningagodi

Thorgeir Ljosvetningagodi Thorkelsson, an Icelandic jurist born around 940, served as lawspeaker of Iceland's Althing from 985 to 1001. Iceland faced a religious crisis around 999 to 1000 as the number of Icelandic Christians grew while paganism still held the majority; the Christian lawspeaker Hallur of Sida deferred the decision on the country's religion to Thorgeir, who was himself a pagan priest and chieftain. After a day and night of deliberation under a fur blanket, Thorgeir ruled in favor of adopting Christianity, a decision that included the compromise that pagans could continue to practice their religion in private and that several old customs would be retained, averting what was seen as a potentially disastrous civil conflict. Thorgeir himself subsequently converted. A popular legend that he threw statues of Norse gods into the waterfall Godafoss, supposedly naming it, is regarded by scholars as a false story that appears to have originated in the 1800s.